For someone who loves making sausages, gifting him/her the vertical sausage stuffer is a great idea. A game hunter will also love this gift. The vertical sausage stuffer makes a wonderful housewarming gift too.

When you make sausages at home, you can control the amount of salt, fat and seasonings. There are no preservatives added. Homemade sausages are certainly healthier.

A vertical sausage stuffer comes with gears and a cylinder that makes it easier to stuff your sausages.

The piston has an air release valve for pushing air bubbles out through the top of the cylinder instead of down into the casings, thus ensuring air bubbles free sausages.

Being upright, the machine is more compact compared to the horizontal shaped sausage maker.

Here are my top 3 picks for the best 5 lb stainless steel vertical sausage stuffer machine based on ease of use and durability

Lem Products 5 lb stainless steel vertical sausage stuffer

This Lem 5 lb vertical sausage stuffer comes with a stainless steel base and cylinder as well as all metal gears. Metal gears are more durable than plastic ones.

The cylinder can be easily removed when you’re filling or when you need to clean up the sausage maker.

The package includes 3 stuffing tubes which are 1/2″, 3/4″, and 1″. If you wish to make a more skinny sausage using 21 mm casings, then you have the option to buy the stainless steel 3/8″ stuffing tube.

No Air Pockets

The plastic piston comes with air release valve to minimize air bubbles in your stuffed sausages. It works by pushing the air out through the top of the cylinder and not into the casing.

Getting the right meat consistency helps too where air bubbles are concerned. The meat flows beautifully into the casings with no air pockets.

Clamps

2 clamps are included for a secure clamping onto your counter top or table.

Fast and Reliable

This quality sausage stuffer with hand crank will allow you to crank out 5 pounds of sausages in about 3 – 8 minutes. If you do more than that, then reloading might take about 2 – 3 minutes.

About 20 – 25 minutes is more than enough to have you churning out 20 pounds of sausages. One customer has commented cranking out 5 pounds in only 30 seconds! Practice makes perfect.

Compared to the electric ones, this hand crank sausage stuffer allows for total control on the rate of stuffing the meat into the casings.

This is certainly faster than the meat grinder sausage stuffer or attachment types.

Easy Clean up

Cleaning up is easy. You can take apart the cylinder, gasket and piston for a thorough cleaning.

The piston can be unscrewed for cleaning.

Pros

Solid construction

Easy to use – meat can be easily pushed into casings, no air bubbles.

Metal gears are durable

Air release valve

Total control over feed rates – crank as fast or slow as you like

Easy to clean – cylinder and piston can be removed for cleaning

Cons

Not easy to clamp the machine

The smaller 3/8″ tubing has to be ordered separately

If you plan on making more than 10 pounds of sausages regularly, then the bigger size Lem 10 lb or 15 lb vertical sausage stuffer might be better options for you. The 5 lb machine is great for making smaller batches.

LEM Products Sausage Stuffing Kit

If you are giving the Lem sausage maker as a gift, then the LEM Products Sausage Stuffing Kit might interest you.

The kit has everything you’ll need to get started on making sausages.

The whole kit includes:

1) a Lem 5 lb vertical sausage stuffer
2) a guide book that teaches you all about making sausages with delicious recipes included
3) a variety of Backwoods Seasonings enough for making 30 pounds of sausages
4) a pack of fresh collagen casings
5) Five (1 1/2″ x 12″) clear fibrous casings